10 years.

By this time last year, I was already getting settled into my room at that place my brain has blocked the name of (it was pretty bad) in London. I was tired, dirty, and probably asleep (I stupidly took a nap). Maybe I was eating dinner.

But 10 years ago, I was just getting out of school, still in shock about the events of the day. I was probably waiting for my sister to walk down with me to her car. We were all zombies, in a way, since our innocence was taken from us so swiftly that day.

I've been watching bits and pieces of the memorial that is happening at Ground Zero today. I can't watch all of it, since it's making me too emotional. Has it really been 10 years? Was I really only a teenager when all this happened? I was in Chemistry class when we heard about the first tower being hit, and by lunchtime it was all over school. Terrorist attack, the towers have fallen, etc etc. It didn't really sink in until they replayed the footage of the South Tower collapsing. All I could think was, "I have family that works near that site. Did they get out? Are they still alive?"

I keep hoping that this immense tragedy will keep this country together, that our shared grief and shock will somehow help remind us that we are all Americans and are working towards the same goal: a better future for us and our children. I think we've lost sight of that in the past few years.